The stadium was already packed when they arrived. Animals flooded the parking lot, armed to the teeth in Gazelle swag and blasting her songs from their phones and car speakers in a cacophony of pop music.
Tory took lead in the group, snarling at anyone who didn't immediately move out of Nick and Judy's way. Tamara trailed behind them. Nick half expected her to bolt while she had the chance, but she stayed with them as they bypassed the ticket counter and made their way inside.
The front lobby was a madhouse. The noise of hundreds of animals talking, laughing, and singing reverberated off the walls and set Nick's nerves on edge. Judy had her ears pinned back. The sound must have been painful for her more sensitive bunny hearing.
The ZPD stood to one the side of the lobby. It was less crowded here. Animals gave them a wide berth. Some watched them curiously, as if they sensed this was more than just the usual security detail.
Clawhauser greeted them with sad eyes. "I filled them in on what you told me, Judy."
"Thank you, Clawhauser. Any word on Tibor's location?"
The cheetah shook his head. "No. We can't reach Tibor or the rest of his team."
Judy nodded. It was unfortunate but not unexpected. "We'll have to go in and search for them then. Have the exits been secured?"
"Chief Bogo is seeing to that now."
"And Gazelle? She should be transferred somewhere safe for the time being until we apprehend Tibor. Hunter too."
Clawhauser shifted uncomfortably. "Uh, about that… Gazelle and Hunter have both gone missing. Not even the other backup dancers know what happened. Howle is talking to the other security teams about it now."
"They must still be in the building." Judy looked over at Nick, reading his thoughts. "Tibor would want to make his statement during the concert. He can't have gone far."
"This is crazy," grumbled McHorn. "There's no way it's Tibor doing all this. It can't be. He's one of us."
"He was one of us," corrected Francine. "Not he's just a criminal."
"A criminal who's making us look like idiots," growled Delgato. He glared at Nick. "That mongrel has been following you around for weeks. You're seriously telling us you never suspected anything in all that time?"
Nick felt the gaze of every single officer swing his way. Tamara's and Tory's too. "No," he answered tightly. "I didn't know."
"How incompetent do you have to be not to notice something like that?" asked Delgato. "Or maybe you did notice. Maybe you two have been secretly working together all along—"
"Nick would never do something like that," said Judy. "He's a cop."
"No, he's a fox." Delgato shot Nick a hateful look.
"But Tibor's been going after interspecies couples," a hippo officer named Henrietta pointed out. "And Nick and Judy are…" She trailed off with a worried look, like she was afraid of pointing out what Judy had already revealed so thoroughly the other day. "Plus, Judy has been attacked herself."
"Supposedly," said the lion. "Though I find it suspicious that she couldn't catch even a single glimpse of her attacker—"
"It was pitch black inside that tunnel," said Judy. "Not even you would have been able to see anything."
"And we're just supposed to take your word for it?"
"Yes." This came from Francine. "Because Hopps and Wilde are the only two who have managed to make any headway at all in this case. So stop acting like a cub who's just had his tail stepped on and let's move on from this."
"Francine is right." Chief Bogo broke through the crowd and stepped up next to the elephant. "What's done is done. I don't want to hear any more squabbling over who is at fault. I want the victims returned safe and the culprit caught and jailed." He gave every one of them a hard look, even Tamara and Tory. "I want everyone searching this place in pairs. We're going to check under every last seat in the stadium if that's what it takes to find Tibor and others. Understood?"
The officers chorused their assent.
Everyone scattered. Nick was the only one who didn't immediately move. Guilt was like a living creature clawing up his stomach. He felt ill and overwhelmed. If he failed this… where did they even start?
A small, warm paw slipped into his and squeezed tight. Nick startled and looked down at Judy. She gave him an encouraging smile. "Come on. This way."
She tugged him through the crowd. Nick knew he should address the paw-holding, but he didn't have the willpower to pull away and no one was paying attention to them anyway. There were too many other more exciting things to look at here. Instead he asked, "Where are we going?"
"To talk to Gazelle's manager. He must be here tonight. With any luck he'll know something helpful—"
"Helpful?" exclaimed Tamara from behind them.
Nick jumped. He'd forgotten about the badger and tiger entirely.
"Seriously? Oskar? We're thinking of the same cat here, right? The insufferable feline with the miserable puss? He's never helped anyone but himself a day in his life."
"It still doesn't hurt to try," said Judy.
They made their way across the recession area. It was even more crowded here than in the lobby. Judy had to let go of Nick's paw just from the sheer crush of bodies pressing in on them. Even with Tory's help, getting anywhere was an arduous process.
Judy hopped up to wave at someone as they passed, and Nick craned his neck to see Marian waving back from her booth. At the booth next to her's stood Cottontail. The two of them both had lines stretching halfway across the room; longer than anyone else's by far. Cottontail was passing out his usual assortment of products, but was also taking time to schmooze and smile at every animal that came up to him.
Marian leaned over to say something to the business bunny. His posture was stiff, but his response seemed sincere enough and the fox beamed like he had just given her the biggest compliment.
Judy had done that, thought Nick. Despite his doubts, she had managed to start bridging the gap between those two, which by all rights should have been impossible. She really was an amazing bunny.
The fur on the back of Nick's neck rose at the feeling of suddenly being watched. He stopped and looked back. It was surprisingly easy to find the source. In a room that was a riot of motion, there was a single still figure looking his way.
It was the rhino from the fight club.
He watched Nick with those small, cold eyes and Nick froze, his mind racing as he calculated all the possibilities. All the bodies filling the room had suddenly become a trap. If the rhino decided to charge—
"This way," said Judy, and Nick turned to see her yanking open a staff door. Tory and Tamara ducked through. Judy held out her paw to him. "Nick, come on. We need to hurry."
"But there's—" He turned back.
The rhino was gone.
Judy watched as Nick searched the crowd. He had been looking a bit shellshocked since leaving the apartment, but this was a more immediate state of fear. He looked frantically to his right and left, as if he expected a sudden attack from the sides. Had he spotted Tibor?
"What is it?" she asked him.
When Nick told her who he had seen, she gave the room a sharp once-over herself, ears pricked for the pounding of heavy feet against the floor or sounds of distress from the crowd, but there was nothing. Even the place where the rhino had been standing had already been filled in by others without an inch of space to spare.
"Should we go back look for him?" Judy asked.
"There's no point," said Nick, even as his gaze continued sweeping the room. "If he's really after me, he'll reveal himself on his own later. Until then, we have more important things to focus on."
"Your safety is just as important to me," said Judy.
That got Nick to look at her. He even managed a small smile. "I know," he said. He reached over and gave her shoulder a squeeze. "It's okay. Let's keep going."
They joined Tory and Tamara in the back hallway. After the cacophony of the front rooms, the staff area felt stiflingly silent.
They continued on to Oskar's office.
Judy had been right in her hunch. The pallas cat was there. He was pacing around behind his desk when they entered, his already thick coat fluffed with irritation. Judy knocked on the doorframe to get his attention.
He rolled his eyes when he saw them. "Great. You two again. Just the last thing I need."
"I guess that means you already heard about Gazelle and Hunter," said Judy.
"What about them?" He held up a paw. "Wait, don't tell me. Whatever they've done I hold no responsibility for them anymore."
"They've gone missing."
Oskar sniffed. "So? It's probably another dumb publicity stunt Gazelle cooked up. Just you watch. Rumors will spread. Animals will be beside themselves by the time the concert starts. Then—lo and behold!—she'll appear on the stage after a dramatic pause and the crowd will go wild. She does this kind of thing all the time."
"This isn't some stunt," said Nick. "Gazelle has been kidnapped. Hunter too. We think there's a good chance they're still being held somewhere on the premises."
The pallas cat raised a furry brow. "Kidnapped? By who?"
"By Tibor." Tamara, who had been lingering in the hallway with Tory up until that point, stepped up next to Judy.
"For crying out loud!" said Oskar. "You're here too? Why are you with them?"
"You're not listening, Oskar. Tibor kidnapped Gazelle."
"So the lot of you keep saying. But why would he do that?"
"You know why." The badger moved closer to the cat. "I remember the things you said that night. How you wished you could punish Gazelle for making your life so difficult. That she was ungrateful and needed to be taught a lesson."
The cat bristled. "So I got a little hot under the collar. It was just some harmless venting. It doesn't prove anything. It's not like I told that crazy hyena to do something to her."
"Are you sure about that?" asked Nick.
Oskar threw up his paws. "This is ridiculous. I have bigger issues right now then worrying about some stupid hyena playing vigilante with a spoiled singer. I'm a victim too, you know!"
"I find that hard to believe," Nick muttered.
Oskar pointed to the laptop on his desk. "For your information, fox cop, I've just been hacked. They've gotten into everything. Everything. Records, videos, receipts. So why don't you put your limited focus into that instead of standing around making up insane charges."
Judy said nothing. Nick said nothing. If the pallas cat had been less upset he probably would have taken their distinct lack of reaction as significant. Thankfully, he was too busy huffing and puffing about the injustice caused to him to wonder at their silence.
Judy glanced over and met Nick's gaze. She knew they were thinking of the same animal. Still, like the rhino, it was a problem that was going to have to wait.
"You're welcome to come down to the station and file a report," Judy told Oskar. "Another officer will be able to look into more for you."
"Yeah," said Oskar sarcastically. "I'll be sure to do that."
"This isn't getting us anywhere," Nick whispered to her. "We should go."
He was right. Either the cat was feigning ignorance or he really thought nothing was going on with Tibor. Either way, staying any longer would be a waste of time.
As they made their way back into the hall, Tamara hesitated at the doorway. "I think I'm going to stay."
Judy looked back to where the pallas cat was starting to furiously gather items from around the office. "Are you sure?"
"He might say more without the two of you around. It's the least I can do after…"
"You don't owe us anything," Nick said.
Tamara raised her chin. "You're right, I don't. But I do owe my sister. I'm staying."
"I'll stay too," said Tory. "Just in case."
When the badger looked at her in surprise, the tiger shrugged. "I'm technically still your bodyguard right now. Might as well stick around."
"For Pete's sake!" exclaimed Oskar. "Why don't all of you just stay and I'll order a freakin' pizza for everyone! We'll make it a sleepover!"
"Call us if you hear anything about Tibor," said Judy. "And be careful."
"We will."
Judy and Nick returned to the hallway.
Nick sighed. "Well, we are officially out of leads."
"Then I guess we'll have to do this the old fashioned way," said Judy. And marching across the hall, she pulled open the first door she came to.
It was a janitor's closet.
After a cursory inspection where she felt sure no hyena's were hiding inside, she moved on to the next door. Behind her, Nick started doing the same.
For the next half hour they made their way slowly along, checking each room and stopping every animal they saw to question them. Judy tried to stay focused on their task, but she couldn't stop herself from stealing glances at her partner. His expression was closed up tighter than a bear trap, but he looked ready to spring apart at the slightest provocation. She ached to comfort him, but this was neither the time or place. Later she could—
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was Clawhauser.
Nick was at her side before she'd even answered. "Hopps speaking."
The news wasn't good. Judy tried to keep her expression neutral, but one look at Nick's face and she knew he could see right through her.
"Just tell me," he said when she disconnected.
Judy took her time putting her phone away. "They found the rest of the security team. They were hidden in a crawlspace under the stage."
"Are they okay?"
Judy shook her head.
"How bad?"
"Dead. All of them. Blood loss, they think."
Nick scrubbed a paw over his face and turned away.
"Nick…"
He yanked open another hall door. This one led to an empty waiting room. For a moment he just stared into the space, unmoving besides the angry twitch of his tail.
"This isn't your fault, Nick."
He slammed the door shut. The echo of it rang up and down the hallway. Judy winced.
"How is it not my fault, Carrots? Delgato's right. I should have seen the signs. Instead of waiting for a victim to show up and throw the answers into my face."
"Nobody saw the signs," said Judy.
"But he was my partner."
"And that means you're supposed to know every hidden desire he has?" demanded Judy. "Not even you are that clever, Nicholas Wilde."
"That's not what I—" Nick clenched his paws. "You don't get it, Carrots. It's not that I missed some tiny clue. This whole time, Tibor was playing me. That means everything he did, every conversation we had, it was all a lie. And I failed to see through any of it."
In other words, he felt like he had been conned. By a friend.
A door at the end of the hall flew open and Officer Howle poked his head out. "I thought I heard the two of you out here. Come with me. We may have found something."